This species has had several L-numbers assigned to it, with L146 collected from an unspecified locality in Colombia and L232 from the Río Putomayo/Içá.

It’s exported for the aquarium trade under a number of different generic names including Hemiancistrus, Sophiancistrus and Peckoltichthys.

Following Armbruster (2008) it can be to…

This species was formerly included in the genus Brochis alongside C. britskii and C. multiradiatus, and is sometimes referred to as ‘common brochis’. Juveniles have a mottled colour pattern and are sometimes traded as ‘hi-fin cory’ due to their enlarged dorsal-fin.

C. splendens can be told apart from other ex-Brochis species by possession of 10-12 dorsal-fin rays…

Both species also possesses a broader dark midlateral stripe on the body which tends to be more well-defined in B. lateristriga than in B. maculata.

Colour pattern in B. maculata varies considerably with some specimens noticeably paler than others, for example, and the the broad midlateral stripe usually less intense in such individuals.

This does not app…

This species is not often available and is much sought after in the aquarium hobby where it’s been traded as ‘crystal rainbow tetra’ and ‘orange-tailed glass tetra’.

It’s also been referred to as a Heterocharax or Tyttocharax species in the past.

It’s currently the only member of its genus which is separated fr…

This species can be confused with three similar-looking fishes of uncertain taxonomic status which have been assigned the C numbers C024, C077, and C109 in the aquarium hobby.

C024 and C109 are unlikely to be conspecific in that they occur in Pará state, Brazil, several thousand kilometers outside the range of C. acutus, in the rio Guamá (Tocantins drainage), and lower rio Xingu, respectively.

This species is currently the only described member of its genus although colour pattern and morphology vary considerably across its range.

You may see reference to this species being the only fish species to possess infra-red vision, but other species also possess this ability and we suspect that infra-red plays an important role in the reproductive cycle of many fishes.

Described from the Río Ampiyacu, a small tributary draining into the main Amazon channel in Loreto Department, northeastern Peru, with additional records from the Yavarí (Javari), Napo, Nanay, and lower Ucayali drainage basins.

All of these are Amazon tributaries, and C. ambiacus appears to occur in most or all affluents of the main Amazon channel between th…

This species is also referred to as ‘South American puffer’, ‘SAP’, ‘Amazonian puffer’, ‘Peruvian puffer’, or ‘Brazilian puffer’ in the ornamental trade.

Within the genus Colomesus, C. asellus can be immediately identified by possessing a unique transverse row of dermal flaps across the chin which is absent in its congeners C. psittacus and C. tocantinensis.

There also exist a number of minor differences in colour pattern between populations. For example some Peruvian forms have yellow pigmentation on the body and fins, and those from Guyana and Suriname possess a short red stripe on vertical scale rows 6-9, above the central dark stripe on the body.

Rio Negro forms have a similar red stripe but overlapping the central dark stripe and extending along most of the flank, while a form from Colombia has an elongate red stripe which is broken in two beneath the dorsal-fi…

The genus Apistogramma is among the most speciose of South American cichlid genera with around 70 species valid at present but many more awaiting description. In addition many species exist in two or more geographical colour forms which may or may not turn out to be distinct in the future. Hobbyists tend to label these with collection data if available in order to avoid mixing them and the potential of hybridisation.